Scope
The Scaling Care Innovations in Africa initiative seeks to respond to the challenges and gaps in unpaid care through a focus on policy and program innovations related to the “3Rs”, namely recognize, reduce and redistribute care work. Innovations may contribute to recognizing the value of care at policy, community and household levels, reducing the drudgery and time spent on unpaid care work, and redistributing the responsibility and cost equitably within households and beyond. The goal is to harness locally generated data and evidence to guide care policies and interventions to improve lives and livelihoods of marginalized women and girls.
Work supported under this initiative will be guided by IDRC’s approach to scaling science, which focuses on impact in ways that maximize benefits to society. The approach promotes scaling impact rather than scaling specific actions or innovations. This means that scaling is not necessarily about pushing up or out, because bigger outputs or more actions do not always lead to better impact. The focus will be on scaling impacts that are important to women and girls in different socio-economic contexts, ensuring their voices are heard in the process.
Eligibility
This Call for concept notes is open to individual organizations or consortia with a lead organization based in sub-Saharan Africa. The initiative will require successful applicants to form coalitions involving research organizations, government and/or private sector entities, civil society organizations, and other key implementing partners that are essential to link research to action. Active engagement of women’s rights organizations through project co-design is essential to ensure the relevance of the proposed work and its sustainability.
Funding
Through calls for research proposals, we fund projects that aim to foster climate-resilient food systems, global health, education and science, democratic and inclusive governance, and sustainable and inclusive economies in developing countries. Gender equality and inclusion are also central to our strategy and the research we support.
Types of grants
Contributory grants
Typically these grants are awarded only to institutions and on the condition that the grantee makes a financial or in-kind contribution to the overall cost of the project (for example, paying salaries or assuming overhead costs). Payments are made based on the achievement of predefined outputs or results.
Non-contributory grants
In some instances, IDRC grants may be provided to an institution or to an individual with no expectation of a financial or in-kind contribution. Payments are typically made up front or in annual installments. These grants include:
Grants-in-aid
Grants-in-aid include all grants awarded to an individual (for example, travel grants, fellowships, research internships, and scholarships, in addition to research-related awards) and grants awarded to an institution where progress reporting is minimal.
Core grants
Core grants are intended to provide financial support to cover the basic (or core) organizational and administrative costs of an institution such as salaries, office costs, IT, equipment, etc.
Program grants
Program grants are similar to core grants, but the funding is limited either to one specific program, a predefined set of activities within a program, or for a purpose common to several programs.